Senior Software Engineer at Kunai
Chicago, IL
—
Jul 7, 2026
Chicago, IL
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior backend engineering role focused on a large-scale digital payments modernization program, integrating a major card network into a major U.S. bank. Day-to-day work spans designing and running enterprise performance testing, building and maintaining Java-based backend services on PostgreSQL and OpenShift, and contributing to migration from legacy infrastructure (Oracle, Tomcat, WebSphere) to cloud-native environments. Suits an experienced Java engineer with a performance testing background and ideally some exposure to payments or financial services.
Senior level · 5+ years · National · Bachelor's required
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
No work location or metro area is specified in the posting; CBSA fields are left blank. The role is described as embedded in a client program, suggesting on-site or hybrid work, so remote is set to false.
The role spans both application engineering (building backend services) and performance/load testing at enterprise scale — a genuine hybrid between 15-1252 Software Developers and 15-1253 QA/Testers. Application engineering is listed first and appears to be the primary function, so 15-1252 is the primary code with 15-1253 as the runner-up.
The degree requirement states a Bachelor's degree is required, but allows substitution with three additional years of specialized experience per missing year of college — because a degree substitute is offered, this is a judgment call; the posting does frame a degree as the minimum, so Bachelors is set.
Tomcat and WebSphere are explicitly called 'a plus' in the required skills section, making them preferred despite their placement near required items.
PCI compliance and event-driven architecture appear in the required skills section but are framed with 'understanding of' and 'familiarity with' — softer language that suggests context rather than hard gates; marked as preferred accordingly.
PGLogical, GitHub Copilot/Claude, and prior bank/card network experience are listed under 'Nice to Have' and are marked as preferred.
Read the full posting
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